Archive for October 2009

I was exceptionally impressed with the superb interview Bill Moyers conducted with Glenn Greenwald and eagerly looked forward to seeing it aired on PBS stations. Then, after I discovered it wasn’t airing Friday night, I learned to my chagrin that it was a Web Exclusive Conversation. Even though Glenn posted it almost immediately on his [...]

I saw my VA health man the other day, to talk about my meds – including weighing the pros and cons of going on a cholesterol-lowering drug; plus I asked for an eye exam and had blood drawn. Everything looks good. I’m in the pink. On the way out the door, I got a couple [...]

A case is currently wending its way through the courts that ironically may be decided on precedents set back during the civil rights movement, originally intended to protect civil rights activists from retaliation by racist state and local governments. Political activism by African Americans was, shall we say, less than encouraged in the Jim Crow [...]

It’s been curious, in the most delightful way possible, to watch the Republican party rise from the ashes of its last two defeats carried on wings of insular delusion into the ether of pure crazy. This has been happening for some time, of course, but under the careful eye of Karl Rove and Tom DeLay, [...]

I have no idea who Charlotte Allen is, other than a just another mentally challenged wingnut broad who is attempting to drink from Peggy Noonan’s cup before she spills it again, or perhaps fill Maggie Gallagher’s ample stretch pants, and as such is naturally awarded acres of space in formerly reputable newspapers like the LA [...]

Until I learned from a family victim of yet another tragic teen black on black crime that left an elderly couple dead, I didn’t know Chicagoland TV star Garrard McClendon existed. One of three shocked, bereaving sons of the Hammond Indiana couple, it turns out McClendon has a 3 ½ hour morning show Mon-Sat on [...]

Posted on October 23, 2009, 10:06 am, by cocktailhag, under Book Saloon.

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt By R.W. Brands (Doubleday, 2008) When the New Deal was in its infancy, amid a world in economic collapse and with fascism sweeping across Europe, Roosevelt rightly saw mass unemployment for the danger it was to American Democracy; many in the [...]

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, reiterated during a recent visit to Russia that the meaning of turquoise socks worn by one of his country’s judges may be the most important issue facing Italians this year. Brushing aside complaints about a recent alleged sexist remark made to a female opposition leader and a perceived snub [...]

Posted on October 20, 2009, 3:16 pm, by cocktailhag, under Pants on Fire.

UPDATED BELOW: It’s certainly no mystery why the GOP and its fanboys at Fox and elsewhere are always on the attack. Aside from the fact that only 20% of Americans will still reluctantly admit to being Republicans, the other 80% are always susceptible to inconvenient facts slipping into the conversation, which would clearly make an [...]

Posted on October 19, 2009, 4:24 pm, by cocktailhag, under Golden Oldies.

Back during the Clinton impeachment, which in light of our current predicament seems almost like a long lost golden era, the bilious Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a blistering, spittle-flecked screed, mercilessly berating Americans for their lack of bloodlust for Clinton, based on a series of polls that showed that most people, [...]